"I'm okay with being unimpressive. I sleep better".
This blog tells of the life and times of a little trumpet playing fellow... feel free to leave comments, I like to know who reads this thing.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Didn't make it
I had plans. Big plans about my 100th blog. It was going to be epic. It was going to be posted on 24th December 2007, exactly 2 years after I wrote my first blog. It was going to be a big party, and what's more, it was going to be my first ever video blog, complete with me miming along to a song at the end. The bigger thing than that though, was that it was going to be my last ever blog. I don't have time to do it anymore, and two years is long enough to spend inside anybody's head, let-alone mine so I was going to close the door to the public.
However, 24th December is only 9 days away... i couldn't possibly whack out 3 half-decent blogs and film a 4th in that time. And besides, i'm not really in the mood. So, this is it I guess. The end of my blogging - who knows? It could end up being published in a book one day under the title of "Stephen Rock: The Blogging Years", or just simply "Between a Rock and a Hard Place".
Fear not, it's not all bad - there should be another publication from me one day... but it's going to take a long, long time.
Farewell and Merry Christmas... i'm sure i'll see you all soon...
And I will leave you with the saddest but greatest goodbye ever:
Hi everyone... sorry it's been so long since I last blogged. It's not that I have had nothing to say, but rather that I have not had much time to say it, or i've just not been in the mood. To quote one person, I've "been living in a kind of weird existence lately"... that is to say I don't know much about what is happening in my life at the moment. I don't know what i'm going to be doing next year yet, hell, i don't even know what i'm doing next week! And that goes for most aspects of my life...
BUT, I have had a pretty amazing past few weeks, with three main events to write about:
The first of the three events (and the focus of this blog) was way back at the beginning of the month when I went to see the Foo Fighters at the NEC Arena. It was set to be a huge night, even just judging from the fact that the support act was Serj Tankian, lead singer of System of a Down. Serj has recently released his first solo album and was keen to publicize it. It's in a very similar style to System, and features a lot of inspiration from the war in Iraq, as so many bands have done over the past few years.
Serj turned out to be quite a showman, appearing in a full white suit and top hat, whilst the rest of his band wore black suits. If i'm honest, despite the fact that he lives in America and sings all his songs in English, I was still incredibly surprised when the words "Hello Birmingham" came out of his mouth without so much as a European accent... that's probably just me being an idiot though.
Anyway, so the Foos came on at approximately 9pm, and wowed us straight away with "Let it Die" from their recent album, "Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace". They stayed on stage for just under two hours with an incredible set design. Looking simple at first, with the stage featuring four big video screens to show the action, and a cat-walk down through the crowd towards the mixing desk in the middle of the standing area, there was a surprise in store for everyone when, in the middle of their set, a small stage decended from the ceiling above the mixing desk, and the Foo Fighters played an acoustic set including "Everlong" right in the middle of the crowd.
At the end of the set, Dave Grohl came back on with the band, after promising no less than 3 encores via a video linkup to back stage. But him and the band couldn't get enough of it and performed 5 more songs, before leaving the stage for good. An amazing evening... (yes, even better than Muse)
Now, for my little music videos, I have decided to give you the video of Serj Tankian's first solo single, "Empty Walls" and Foo Fighters "Learn to Fly" (cos let's face it, it's a classic!". And because those two are a bit of a cop-out and an obvious choice, I will leave you with OK Go's famous treadmill video, as I have recently found a number of people who haven't seen it, and they really should! Enjoy...
I struck gold on youtube and found that someone managed to video bits of the gig on their mobile... there was also a large group of people with proper video cameras who were something to do with the band i assume, so maybe there will be a dvd release or something... who knows? But for now... enjoy these...
Tonight I went to a concert. Or was it a "gig"? It was both! The CBSO and the Guillemots joined forces as part of the Town Hall re-opening festival. And it was goooooooood!
The programme was an interesting one, with the first half consisting of two pieces, performed by the CBSO. Starting the concert was a piece of Ives, which was influential to Guillemots' frontman Fyfe Dangerfield when he was writing his piece especially for the CBSO, which was the second piece of the programme.
Fyfe's piece was very good... maybe a little long, but certainly better than most of the modern music I find myself hearing in Birmingham. Whereas all modern music seems to have rubbish bits which don't inspire me at all, there is the occaisional gem that has a couple of nice bits where you think "actually, this is ok" for a second or two. Fortunately, Fyfe had managed to write plenty of these bits into his piece!
The highlight for me though, and probably everyone else, was the second half. A set by the Guillemots, with accompaniment from the CBSO. Opening with the beautiful song "Little Bear", Fyfe and the CBSO played/sung brilliantly, before an energetic entrance from the rest of the band. The Guillemots fans among you will know that most of their songs use orchestras anyway, so with a live orchestra is clearly the best way to see them. And it was amaaaazing.
The evening climaxed with Sao Paulo, the last track of Through the Windowpane. And what a climax it was! "This could end up a bit like Spinal Tap" was Fyfe's comment before starting the song... and later we saw why. Mid-song, he ran offstage to reappear upstairs in the choir seats, where he sat down and finished the song singing and playing the Town Hall organ. It was incredible. (And, incidently, I believe it was the first time that the organ has been used in a performance for 11 years!)
Cue standing ovation and raptuous applause (far greater than the CBSO normally get) and fewer smiles from the CBSO than normal (I really couldn't work out what they were making of the whole "playing with a famous band" thing).
One thing was missing though... Annie Let's Not Wait was not on the playlist. How did they miss that out?! Admittedly i'm one of the people who preferred the original recording (from the album) to the new one they did later... but anyway, it's going to have to wait until I see them again (which I hope to!)... and then they'd better play it!!!!
I made up for it by buying their E.P., "Of the Night", which, frankly is brilliant!
So now I leave you, fittingly with the 10 minute beast that is Sao Paulo as performed by the Guillemots at the Electric Proms (imagine the last few minutes on organ instead of piano!)
And cos they didn't play it tonight... (sorry it's not the original version... but still)...
It's freshers week. I've been working at Symphony Hall a lot lately, and training and working at Town Hall too. And there is all the socializing to do and surprise parties to attend. It's a busy time of year and there is nothing better than relaxing with a nice cup of coffee and watching 8 Simple Rules, Home Improvement or Scrubs on ABC1.
Or at least there WAS nothing better than relaxing with a nice cup of coffee and watching 8 Simple Rules, Home Improvement or Scrubs on ABC1. Yesterday, when we tried to watch a bit of ABC1, we were horror-struck.
It wasn't on the list anymore!
Where had it gone?!
Well, the answer my friends, is it has been closed down. So, in effect the laughter has died... no more Home Improvement or 8 Simple Rules. At least Scrubs is still available on E4 and Paramount, but then again, i have Scrubs on DVD anyway...
Also, lately I have been marvelling at the results that I have so far cumulated from the "Compare People" application on Facebook. It seems that people don't really know me as well as some do... for those of you who are not Facebookers, Compare People has a series of questions comparing people, and you get two choices chosen at random and choose whoever fits the question best. Here are a few results that have surprised me... Smarter: 5/5 putting me in 5th place among my Facebook friends. Studies harder: 4/5 putting me in 8th place among my Facebook friends. More adventurous: 3/3 putting me 9th and interestingly contradiction the "braver" catogory where i currently have 0/2 votes, putting me in 106th place. More jealous of: 3/4 putting me in 9th (?!) More confident and more talkative: Both of which have 2/3 votes, putting me in 40th and 45th places respectively... despite the fact that both require molto alcohol.
So there we go. Or maybe, those people know me better than I do. I dunno... of course it could be a simple case of me having gone up against some pretty easy competition on those ones!
Finally, we are nearly at my 100th blog ever (i think this one is number 94 or something...) and plans are underway for the transition into the triple figures. Stay tuned, blog 100 will be an instant classic... and very embarrassing for me... but that is all very top secret stuff, unless you are one of the people who has seen me recently while drunk and I have spilled the beans to, but it will be worth waiting for...
And now, the music video for todays blog. Having working for Brian Wilson's concert at Symphony Hall the other day, I have been listening to a lot of Beach Boys. And I just can't get enough of "Wouldn't It Be Nice"...
Today I painted my sunglasses and my ears. I also painted a fence, and thrust my hand boldly into some stinging nettles. Before wincing in pain.
That is all I have to say about today.
Last summer, I discovered the wonderful thing that is the "customers also bought" section on Amazon. This is more useful if you go on the US Amazon site as you are far more likely to find a band that few people over here have heard of. That was how I discovered The Fray before they were particularly big over here. And at the same time, I discovered a band called Guster. They seem to be pretty big in America but are relatively unknown over here, despite being featured on the soundtracks of the OC and Wedding Crashers. If you are a fan of The Shins, The Fray, or indeed, most of the music on Scrubs... you will probably like them. And I love them.
The reason I am talking about them, is because they are my choice of video for this blog... and they do make good... nay... GREAT videos. And because I couldn't choose... here are a couple:
Guster - Satellite
Guster - One Man Wrecking Machine
Facebook users go to www.rockyxiii.blogspot.com to see the videos...
I'm a big kid. I enjoy Spongebob Squarepants, Mr Men, McFly, and Morph rather more than the average 20 year old. And yes, I was sucked into the vortex that was Pottermania. And when I finished the last book, I was left feeling like life had little point anymore, as I'm sure many people did (or at least, if Facebook groups are anything to go by, they did!). The only thing that I can compare the feeling to is the end of the Truman Show. When the show ends and all the viewers are left not knowing to do, having spent the past 30 years of their lives watching Truman Burbeck go about his daily business. Well, having spent a decade following the life of a teenage wizard, I think that the rest of the population and myself are entitled to feel a little empty.
Many people have suggested that the end of Harry Potter marks the end of their childhood. Having first met Harry when still a child, and now finishing when they are in their 20's, it is an understandable that they would feel this way, but me being the big kid that I am, am determined not to let the end of a set of books be the end of my childhood. And here is how I will still be a child until I am at least 25...
I have decided to read the Narnia books. They didn't completely pass me by as a child - I did read the first two books (The Magician's Nephew and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe), but stopped reading when I reached The Horse and His Boy. Having been told that the end of the series is very exciting, I felt I should give them another shot. The books are very short and I was hoping to be further into them than I currently am, but I managed to leave The Magician's Nephew at work the other day so the whole Narnia thing is on hiatus.
After finishing Narnia, I am going to take on Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy as these did completely pass me by and I am told that they really shouldn't have done. So that is something to look forward to.
Following this, I will attempt to tackle the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. This one didn't pass me by either - I read The Hobbit and started the trilogy after seeing the first film, however I experienced a great dislike for Tom Bombadil and got bogged down during the Council of Elrond and never returned. I will be re-reading The Hobbit first to ease myself into it.
Finally, I am going to re-read all of the Harry Potter books. I have a sneaky suspicion that I probably missed a lot of details that hint towards later events. Though I don't think I missed any as large as the one that the director of the 5th film nearly missed out... he was going to cut Kreacher from the film completely, but J.K. told him that he probably shouldn't do that cos there could be issues in the 7th film if Kreacher has never been in it before... just a bit of Potter trivia for you there!
So that is how I will be a kid til i'm 25. And now, I have just had an idea, to put a link to a music video at the end of each post I write... kind of gives you an idea of what I'm listening to in an easier way to what I have tried before... and is completely legal as far as i'm aware!
Name: Stephen Rock Home: Luton / Birmingham, Bedfordshire / Warwickshire, United Kingdom About Me: Im from Luton and go to University of Birmingham where i am studying music. I play the trumpet. See my complete profile
